1.Google Fiber gets a fast
start in Kansas Cityhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57486627-94/google-fiber-gets-a-fast-start-in-kansas-city/ “…Google Fiber is taking off in Kansas
City…where 46 of the designated neighborhoods -- or "fiberhoods" --
have qualified for the service…Google said it would prioritize construction of
the network in neighborhoods -- so-called "fiberhoods" -- in which residents
show the most interest. It set up a website where residents interested in the
service can pre-register for the service for a $10 fee. When that particular
"fiberhood" reaches a predetermined threshold, Google will commit to
offering service in that area…Google has already managed to sign up 23 percent
of the eligible neighborhoods in the two cities. Missouri residents seem to be
more enthusiastic about the service; 31 percent, or 40 out of 128 eligible
"fiberhoods" qualifying for service. Kansans are lagging, by
contrast; only eight percent, or six out of 74 "fiberhoods," have so
far qualified for the service…analysts at Macquarie Capital estimate Google has
signed up 7,000, out of a possible 165,000 households…Google has "fiber
trucks" going through various neighborhoods eligible for the fiber network
to help educate residents…Google has also established a "fiber space"
demonstration center where local residents can make appointments to learn
more…Google's main package costs $120 and gives customers the 1Gbps broadband
and Fiber TV service plus 1 terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage. The 1Gbps
broadband-only service is only $70 and also includes 1 Terabyte of data
storage. Time Warner Cable, Google's biggest competitor in this market, offers
a 50 Mbps Internet service for an introductory price of $80 a month. And its
total package with TV service and home phone service included is $200 a
month…this initiative is less about a long-term revenue opportunity for Google
and more about pushing current Internet providers to increase speeds and
innovate…” [the 8% qualified neighborhoods in Kansas vs. 23% in Missouri is why I
told KCK and Google they should hire me as the Google Fiber community advocate,
and that dramatic difference in interest is why Google or KCK should still hire
me… - ed.]

2.Google Fiber project
tries to add more Kansas City-area citieshttp://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2012/08/06/google-fiber-project-adds-more-kansas.html “Google Inc. is attempting to add three
Johnson County cities into a future service area for its ultra-fast broadband
and TV offering. The would-be Google communities — Westwood, Westwood Hills and
Mission Woods — border Google’s existing service area in Kansas City, Kan., and
are close to the University of Kansas Medical Center and KU Hospital. Westwood
also is home to KU Hospital’s Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion…In
several interviews with the Kansas City Business Journal, Lo has emphasized the
potential enhancements Google’s 1-gigabit Internet network offers for
telemedicine — patients and doctors attempting to interact from a distance. The
agreement still needs approval from each community’s city council…”

3.Logitech launches TV Cam
HD for living room video chats: built-in Skype, 720p, $200http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/03/logitech-skype-tv-cam-hd/ “…Logitech…TV Cam HD…$199.99 device hooks up
to your TV and contains all the processing power needed to run Skype and
transmit wide-angle, 720p footage of your couch over WiFi or Ethernet. Unlike
the previous TV Cam, there's no need for a Viera Connect HDTV -- anything with
HDMI-in will do. The company is banking on the notion that families will forgo
the use of their existing mobile devices and laptops in favour of an always-on
dedicated system with incoming call alerts, four noise-cancelling mics and a
Carl Zeiss lens that "gets the whole family in the video call, so everyone
from grandparents to grandchildren can move around naturally…”

4.Transcribe: An awesome
audio-transcription Web app for Chromehttp://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/08/04/transcribe-an-awesome-audio-transcription-web-app-for-chrome/ “If you ever have a need to transfer an audio
recording into text format, you’ll likely love this little Chrome Web app.
Aimed at journalists, students or anyone with a need to convert interviews and
such like to the written from, Transcribe does exactly as it says on the tin.
And it’s so incredibly simple to use…Transcribe is geared towards Google Chrome
because because the Web app requires the HTML5 functionality…Transcribe works
entirely offline – which allayed my initial fears that this tool would be
heavily restricted by a dependence on connectivity…There are only five keys
you’ll need to remember to control the player – and it’s likely you’ll only
ever use two of them with any kind of regularity: Esc: Pause/Resume…F1: Slow
Down…F2: Speed Up…F3: Rewind 2 Seconds…F4: Fast-Forward 2 Seconds…I used this
app for the first time this week and, well, it was a godsend. I only really
needed to use the Esc and F3 keys, so it wasn’t difficult to get to grips with.
I’ll certainly be using this again…work is currently underway for a companion
iPhone and Android Transcribe app, which will let users record an interview on
their smartphone, and the app will automatically upload the recording to their
Transcribe account…”

5.Amazon now renting
old-fashioned paper textbookshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/08/06/amazon-textbook-rentals/ “Amazon now offers physical textbook rentals
as a cheaper option for college students, a move designed to keep Amazon as a
dominant player in textbooks. While Amazon has offered digital rentals of
textbooks for more than a year, this new initiative will cater to students who
feel more comfortable with old-fashioned paper books for studying…Most of the
textbook options Amazon offers for rent cost between $30 to $60. Rentals are by
the semester (130 days), and there’s free shipping back and forth for
delivery…For those concerned about getting a used textbook with a ton of
scribbled notes inside, Amazon is doing quality control. The company will allow
a “minimal” amount of note-taking in the textbooks. If a student adds “excessive
writing or highlighting” to a rented textbook and tries to ship it back, he or
she will be charged the full purchase price of the book minus rental fees…”

6.Facebook's first
real-cash gambling app launchedhttp://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19162971 “A real-money gambling app has been launched
on Facebook - the social network's first. Developed by London-based online
gambling operator Gamesys, the Bingo Friendzy app allows users aged 18 and over
to play games for cash prizes. Facebook said only its UK members would be able
to view the app. The website's largest gaming partner, Zynga, said it also
planned to introduce real-money gambling versions of its games next year…Bingo
Friendzy was not a joint venture…the game had been developed entirely by
Gamesys. "Real money gaming is a popular and well-regulated activity in
the UK, and we are allowing a partner to offer their games to adult users on
the Facebook platform in a safe and controlled manner," she told the BBC. Facebook
intends to use age-gating technology to ensure under-18s and "vulnerable
people" are unable to access the app. The social network typically takes a
30% cut of transactions on its network…”

7.FedEx Now Lets You Print
From DropBox, Google Docshttp://www.mediabistro.com/appnewser/fedex-now-lets-you-print-from-dropbox-google-docs_b25382 “FedEx bought Kinko’s several years ago and
ever since then they’ve been pushing more and more to support the mobile office
works. For some time now they’ve let you create print jobs from their website
which you could then pick up in store. And now they’ve added the option of
printing your docs from a number of cloud storage services. FedEx’s website
will now let you log in to your accounts at Box, Google Docs, and Dropbox…”

8.Google Ventures invests
$8.2m in e-signature firm DocuSignhttp://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/07/google-ventures-invests-8-2m-in-e-signature-firm-docusign-bringing-series-d-round-to-55-7m-in-total/ “Electronic signature technology company
DocuSign…raised $47.5 million in funding…Today, DocuSign is announcing that it
has expanded the size of the Series D financing round to $55.7 million, letting
Google’s investment arm Google Ventures in on the deal…The company’s
cloud-based platform aims to disrupt the good old pen-and-paper market by
helping its customers complete transactions faster, digitally…its network now
has more than 20 million users and is growing at about 60,000 new users daily…Electronic
signatures are being rapidly adopted by enterprises, small businesses and consumers
worldwide due to their convenience, security and ease of use…Up until today,
more than 150 million documents in 188 countries are said to have been
‘DocuSigned’. Customers include eBay, LinkedIn, American Airlines, Cisco,
Yahoo, HP, Xerox, Expedia, Comcast and Toyota…”

Security,
Privacy & Digital Controls

9.How Apple and Amazon
Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hackinghttp://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/ “In the space of one hour, my entire digital
life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next
my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist
and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into,
and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad,
and MacBook. In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were
daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID
account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter.
Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it’s possible that
none of this would have happened, because their ultimate goal was always to
take over my Twitter account and wreak havoc. Lulz. Had I been regularly
backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn’t have had to worry about losing
more than a year’s worth of photos, covering the entire lifespan of my
daughter, or documents and e-mails that I had stored in no other location.
Those security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them. But what
happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service
systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s. Apple tech support gave the hackers
access to my iCloud account. Amazon tech support gave them the ability to see a
piece of information — a partial credit card number — that Apple used to
release information. In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers
unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same
ones that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification. The
disconnect exposes flaws in data management policies endemic to the entire
technology industry, and points to a looming nightmare as we enter the era of
cloud computing and connected devices. This isn’t just my problem. Since
Friday, Aug. 3, when hackers broke into my accounts, I’ve heard from other
users who were compromised in the same way, at least one of whom was targeted
by the same group…”

10.Apple co-founder Wozniak
sees trouble in the cloudhttp://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h1p0LVc4iFZxbWlflFGgcHhbRNCQ “Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with the
late Steve Jobs, predicted "horrible problems" in the coming years as
cloud-based computing takes hold…the engineering wizard behind the progenitor
of today's personal computer, the Apple II, was most outspoken on the shift
away from hard disks towards uploading data into remote servers, known as cloud
computing. "I really worry about everything going to the cloud," he
said. "I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be
a lot of horrible problems in the next five years…With the cloud, you don't own
anything. You already signed it away" through the legalistic terms of
service with a cloud provider that computer users must agree to. "I want
to feel that I own things," Wozniak said. "A lot of people feel, 'Oh,
everything is really on my computer,' but I say the more we transfer everything
onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it…”

11.Apple buys fingerprint
security firm AuthenTec for $356 millionhttp://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-authentec-acquisition-20120727,0,5065808.story “Seeking to improve its touch technology,
security, its patents portfolio or perhaps all of the above, Apple has
purchased AuthenTec Inc., a fingerprint-authentication products maker, for $356
million in cash…The acquisition is the second biggest purchase ever made by
Apple and offers AuthenTec's stockholders $8 a share, more than 60% above its
Thursday closing price. AuthenTec sells fingerprint sensors to companies for
security purposes but its touch-sensing technology can also be integrated into
computers, according to the New York Times. AuthenTec also makes security
technology for mobile devices, which could come in handy for Apple which this
month saw malware sneak into its iOS App Store for the first time. The
Florida-based company…last saw an $8 share price back in 2008. For Apple, this
is its biggest purchase since it bought Anobit Technologies in 2011 for $400
million…the acquisition's patent holdings should also prove valuable for Apple
in the current "patent wars" Apple is waging in court with various
technology companies around the world…”

Mobile
Computing & Communicating

12.First broadcast TV phone
appears on MetroPCShttp://gigaom.com/mobile/look-ma-tv-first-broadcast-tv-phone-appears-on-metropcs/ “…MetroPCS is in the free-to-air TV business,
but the sets it’s selling are rather small, fitting…within the confines of a
smartphone screen. MetroPCS on Friday began selling the Samsung Galaxy S
Lightray 4G, the first U.S. smartphone to pluck local broadcasters’ TV signals
out of the air…The Dyle mobile TV service MetroPCS is offering is the
brainchild of the Mobile Content Venture, a consortium of local and network
broadcasters, who are using their existing DTV airwaves and infrastructure to
replicate their regular programming on the small screen…this service isn’t so
much a new form of mobile TV as it is just regular TV miniaturized for your
handset – without all of the bells and whistles such as DVR capabilities and
on-demand programming we’ve become accustomed to having at home. Its biggest
advantage, however, is price. It’s free – though Phone Scoop is reporting that
Metro may start charging in 2013 – and it runs over broadcast frequencies,
meaning you can watch as much as you like without incurring data charges…”

13.Apple, be afraid... be
very afraidhttp://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/gadgets/apple-be-afraid-be-very-afraid-1.1356320 “I'm going to destroy Android,” Steve Jobs
told his biographer Walter Isaacson…I’ve just spent a few days with Samsung’s
much hyped Galaxy S3, and I can see what the late Apple boss was so worried
about. The Android powered S3 is superior to the iPhone 4S in almost every
respect. Not surprising then that Samsung’s already sold more than 10 million
of them. The first thing you notice about the S3 is the jaw dropping brilliance
of its enormous 4.8-inch Super Amoled screen. Pick up an iPhone after this and
its 3.5-inch screen suddenly seems tiny…Widgets? I hear you ask. No, you don’t
get those on the iPhone. Google must have “stolen” that idea from somewhere
else. Browsing the web, watching movies and reading eBooks on a screen this
generous is a real delight…The 8-megapixel camera, while not quite as good as
that on the 4S in low light boasts an arsenal of other features that give it
the edge – zero shutter lag, software that automatically picks the best picture
out of a series and the ability to take still pictures while shooting high
definition video. There’s also a 1.9-megapixel front facing camera for video
calls…I was pleasantly surprised by the S3’s battery life. With moderate use
you’ll get a full day out of it, thanks to the huge 2 100mAh battery. If you
play a lot of angry birds or are online for much of the day, pack a spare
battery…unlike the iPhone…you can remove and swap the battery, a huge plus in
my books…On the whole…the S3 beats the pants off the 4S. I have little doubt
Apple will retake the top spot when it releases its new iPhone…It will almost
certainly have a bigger 4-inch screen. And then who will have stolen whose
ideas?” [I hope Samsung and other Android
phone manufacturers have patented screens larger than 3.5” so that Apple and
Microsoft will be forced to license the rights to make a phone with a screen
larger than 3.5” – ed.]

14.Siri, meet Nina: Nuance
unveils voice software for iPhone, Androidhttp://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/08/06/siri-meet-nina-nuance-unveils-voice-control-platform-for-iphone-android/ “…Nuance, the voice technology company best
known for its Dragon Naturally Speaking line of voice applications for personal
computers and Dragon Dictation on the iPhone, today announced Nina, a voice
platform that’s aimed at enhancing customer-service applications with a
Siri-like voice-control interface…It basically brings together what Nuance does
well: speech recognition, text-to-speech, natural-language understanding and
voice-ID biometric technology. It has rolled all of these into a hosted, cloud-based
service that can be used by banks, insurance companies and other business who
make customer service and account-access applications, which can now add all
these features into their applications…You’ll be able to use it to pay bills,
transfer money between accounts, and other basic things like that…here’s a key
feature you might not expect: Nina can also use your voice to authenticate you.
As part of our demo, we handed the phone around the room and tried to sign in
to the demonstration banking app — only one of us could. If nothing else,
adding a voice-based biometric option to banking apps would seem to improve the
security of a mobile banking app, if only because sufficiently complicated
passwords are hard to remember…”

15.ARM's eight-core Mali
GPUs promise 'dramatic' boost to mobile graphicshttp://www.engadget.com/2012/08/06/arm-second-gen-mali-t600-gpus/ “…By the end of this year though, we should
see a whole new generation of Malis -- not just a Mali 450 for mid-range
handsets, but also the quad-core T604 and the eight-core T658, which are based
on ARM's Midgard architecture and are taking forever to come to market. Now, to
whet our appetites even further, ARM has just added three more variants of the
chip to its roster, which can almost be considered the next-next-generation:
the quad-core T624, and the T628 and T678, which are both scalable up to eight
cores. The trio's headline feature is that they promise to deliver at least 50
percent more performance with the same silicon area and power draw, with the
explicit aim of delivering "console-class gaming," 4K and even 8K
video workloads, as well as buttery 60fps user interfaces in phones, tablets
and smart TVs. The premium T678 is aimed at tablets specifically, and in
addition to allowing up to eight cores also doubles the number of
math-crunching ALUs per core, which means that its compute performance
(measured in gigaflops) is actually quadrupled compared to the T624…there's one
other, subtler change which could turn out to be equally important…It's ARM's
curious decision to dedicate a small section of silicon (two percent, in fact)
solely to running a new graphical compression codec, which the company has
designed in-house and handed over Khronos as an open standard. The codec --
called Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC) -- is all about stopping
the "fragmentation of standards" that game and app developers have to
deal with. Currently, a developer has to choose different codecs to achieve
different levels of texture compression for different platforms: for example,
they might choose an 8-bit-per-pixel codec for desktop and then an entirely
separate 4-bit-per-pixel codec for mobile. ASTC will put an end to all that,
ARM claims, by supporting all manner of textures, color standards and
bit-rates, and thereby becoming the "the new standard" which has
"no competitors."…somewhere on the outskirts of Cambridge, UK, and
audible only to coders who know what an 8-bit HDR BPTC texture is, a gauntlet
may have just hit the floor.” [this
article is yet another illustration of how a majority of computing innovation
is happening in mobile – ed.]

Apps

16.Apple aims to kill off
Google Maps in iOS 6 with redirects and better technologyhttp://www.appleinsider.com/print/12/08/03/inside_apples_new_vector_based_maps_in_ios_6.html “Apple isn't just declaring its independence
from Google Maps with its new in-house backend for Maps in iOS 6. It has
developed a…way to deliver map data that relies on resolution independent
vectors rather than Google's multiple zoom levels of bit mapped images. The
previous segment, Apple wants to wipe Google off the map with iOS 6, described
Apple's iOS 6 strategy of cutting ties with Google's map servers and instead
powering its own iPhone and iPad Maps client apps (as well as all third party
apps that use iOS' built-in mapping services) with mapping servers it manages
and operates on its own…The first primary technology advancement Apple will be
introducing for iOS 6 Maps relates to the use of resolution independent vector
images. This allows users to smoothly zoom in with a pinch of the fingers, while
details and labels pop up as space allows. Google's existing map services are
based on a series of fixed zoom levels, so when users zoom in, they see the
existing map…incrementally repainted with the next zoom level as it
downloads…Each fixed zoom level of Google's map data is made up of bitmapped
graphics…Google does a pretty good job of quickly serving up replacement map
tiles as users zoom in and out, but this process can be complicated by slow
data networks that don't have the bandwidth to serve up tiles fast enough…while
Google does support offline maps on its own Android platform, there's no way to
load a specific set of maps at arbitrary zoom levels in iOS Maps, so you can
only load up a relatively small area and hope the system doesn't automatically
discard any of the maps you want to view offline. When using…vector maps,
all…data are represented as mathematical lines rather than as fixed graphic
images. This enables Apple to allow users to freely rotate the map however they
want; the text of map labels dynamically reorients itself to remain legible.
When users zoom in or out, the text size of labels scales smoothly, because it
is being rendered live as dynamic text, not as a graphic image that includes
text and must be "repainted" for every zoom level…highly efficient
vector maps allows Apple to load up a large area of maps you can continue to
zoom into even after you've entered Airplane Mode…After loading San Francisco
and going offline, one can browse over 300 miles…south (nearly to Los Angeles),
335 miles…north to the Oregon border, and 300 miles east to the middle of
Nevada, down to the primary city street level…Attempting the same task on an
existing iPad, Google's bitmapped maps run out of steam just 35 miles…away…In
late 2009…Apple began plotting its own next move in maps, no doubt concerned
that additional dependence upon Google would eventually put it in a very
difficult competitive position…Since 2009, Apple has only acquired a dozen
different smaller companies. A quarter of these highly selective, strategic
moves involved mapping companies. In July 2009 Apple bought Placebase, followed
by Poly9 the next July. In August 2011, it bought C3 Technologies, known for
work in developing 3D images based on aerial or satellite images…But Apple
didn't just want to clone Google Maps. It made plans to replace it with
superior technology…Google is also working on its own next generation Google
Maps that makes use of vectors, but it has a more difficult job because it is
targeting several major platforms: the web…Android…and its existing public API,
which is rooted in how Google Maps has worked in the past. Apple can introduce
entirely new technologies very rapidly because it only has to optimize for one
platform: iOS…Apple isn't serving up a public web version of its own maps as
Google does, so it isn't constrained by the limits of web-based
technologies…When iOS 6 ships later this fall, Apple will essentially take away
about half of Google's mobile maps users, and virtually all of its iOS
users…This new competition should push Google to deliver mapping tools that iOS
and OS X users will want to go out of their way to download…Apple is now on the
brink of inheriting a huge new business…Last fall, the company did virtually
the same thing with Siri voice assistance, jumping from dead last in mobile
voice services to being the top vendor with a comfortable lead…”

17.Recce Offers Winning Take
On 3D Mappinghttp://searchengineland.com/mapping-app-recce-offers-winning-take-on-3d-mapping-129489 “The most interesting development in digital
maps may not in fact be the forthcoming introduction of Apple maps in iOS 6. It
may instead be the recent launch of mapping app Recce (pronounced “rekki,”
which is short for reconnaissance)…Recce creates 3D maps through automated
rendering…it’s only available for iOS right now. The difference between what
Recce is doing and Google Maps/Earth or Apple’s new 3D mapping is that the maps
have a different, more playful or “cartoon-like” appearance. They don’t strive
to be totally photo-realistic. This may sound strange or inferior but if you
actually see and play with the Recce app, which only depicts London for now,
you’ll see that it’s both engaging and a very fresh UI…both the UI and the
smooth performance of the app…are impressive…Another fun element in the app,
there are animations that simulate traffic and public transit. The London Eye
also revolves for example. It’s “realistic” without attempting to be an exact
duplication of reality. The company plans to increasingly layer real-time data
into the app (including traffic and weather)…Recce is pulling in lots of data
from different sources, including Twitter (users can also tweet from the app).
People can search Recce by keyword or category…there’s also a “discovery”
capability with “around me now,”…Eventually Liebenberg sees Recce becoming a
“platform” with third party development on top of the UI and data the company
has aggregated…the company has no ambition to map the entire world. Rather it
wants to cover popular cities…the company already has data from 400 cities…”

18.Nook Gets ForeverMap 2
Maps, Navigation, Location-Based Serviceshttp://www.fastcompany.com/1844081/map-wars-nook-gets-maps-navigation-location-based-services-barnes-noble-battles-google-apple “The Google-Apple map wars took another twist
today when it was announced that Barnes & Noble is making OpenStreetMap the
Nook's first mapping platform. Barnes & Noble's decision to adopt
OpenSteetMap, through Skobbler's ForeverMap 2 app means that developers will
also be able to create Nook applications with location-based
functionality…Amazon…opted not to have Google Maps or a third-party map system
integrated into the Kindle Fire's version of Android. Kindle Fire users
currently have to access Google Maps through the web…Skobbler launched ForeverMap
2 on the freemium model; a free version of ForeverMap 2 is available for the
Nook, while a $4.99 pay edition allows for offline use--letting users use their
Nook as a navigation device. ForeverMap 2, which is already available on iOS
and Android, is based around downloadable maps which are cached for offline
use. The automobile angle is being pushed hard by both Amazon and Skobbler; the
product's press release included mentions of “intuitive route guidance [and]
wifi positioning.”…Apps with location-based services for the Nook can be
developed through ForeverMap 2…OpenStreetMap is a Wikipedia-like open source
mapping project that has quietly become the dark horse in the great map war
between Google and Apple. Both Apple and Google are deeply interested in
exploiting new sources of revenue from new location-based mobile advertising
and marketing technologies that are expected to become commonplace in 2013 and
2014…”

19.Dead Trigger hits 1
million iOS downloads after free-to-play switchhttp://www.slashgear.com/dead-trigger-hits-1-million-ios-downloads-after-free-to-play-switch-04241691/ “…Madfinger made its mobile FPS Dead Trigger
free-to-play on the iOS App Store. That iOS transition came after and earlier
switch to free-to-play on Android, with Madfinger saying that the piracy rate
on Android was just too great. It seems that piracy was driving the decision to
go free-to-play on iOS as well, but whatever…it isn’t very surprising that Dead
Trigger has hit 1 million downloads. It’s a flashy FPS…Madfinger got quite a
bit of publicity when it announced that the game was going free-to-play on
Android due to rampant piracy. The studio got even more attention when the game
mysteriously went free-to-play on iOS, so it was the perfect combination of
publicity, controversy, and the word “free” that propelled Dead Trigger to this
1 million milestone…”

20.Apple drops YouTube as
pre-loaded app in iOS 6 systemhttp://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-08-06/apple-youtube/56831442/1 “Apple has eliminated Google's YouTube as a
pre-loaded app on its mobile devices as the battle for users escalates between
the two technology giants. When Apple released the test version of its upcoming
mobile operating system, iOS 6, for its iPhone and iPad Monday, YouTube, one of
the most popular default apps on the devices, was not in the lineup…"Our
license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended," says Apple
spokeswoman Trudy Muller. "Customers can use YouTube in the Safari
browser, and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App
Store."…The YouTube app on iPhone and iPad was created by Apple's own
developers using YouTube's open developer tools. As a result, the YouTube
experience on Apple's devices is different than the version on Android devices
and at YouTube.com on Web browsers. Apple forbids displaying ads on its version
of the YouTube app. And some video creators, unwilling to forgo potential
revenue from advertising, have chosen not to show their videos on Apple's
devices. YouTube videos running on Web browsers or in the app on Android
devices include ads…”

SkyNet

21.Google’s New Page Speed
Tool Speeds Up Your Websitehttp://www.webmonkey.com/2012/08/new-google-page-speed-tool-speeds-up-your-website/ “Google has added yet another trick to the
company’s Page Speed web optimization service — a page rewriter that
turbocharges your site by making sure that your visible, above-the-fold content
loads before anything else…Page Speed’s new rewriter, which Google refers to as
“Cache and Prioritize Visible Content,” works by optimizing three main things
on your site — all of which are standard best practices for speeding up a
website, but are often hard for smaller sites to pull off. First off the Page
Speed rewriter isolates those parts of the page that can’t be cached (logged in
user info for example) and caches the rest of the page. The next step is, as
the name implies, to “prioritize visible content rendering.” The Google blog is
a little unclear on how this works, saying only that the rewriter
“automatically determines and prioritizes the content that is above the fold of
the browser, so that it doesn’t have to compete with the rest of the page…”

22.Nerd Alert: Turn Google
Street View Maps into Animated ASCIIhttp://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/08/nerd-alert-turn-google-street-view-maps-animated-ascii/2851/ “Here's something to get all ლ(ಠ益ಠლ) about: A nerdheap of
artist/programmers found a way to transform Google's Street View photos into
wild, blipping ASCII paintings…The group works for the experimental Labs arm of
Teehan+Lax, a Toronto-based marketing firm, and crafted the technology as a way
to let painters "draw" with animated computer code. (You can see a
video about the process below.)…As a nifty feature, the programmers made their
OpenGL effort compatible with WebGL, which is used by Google Maps. The result
is a side project called "ASCII Street View." You might have to
update your browser for it to work; it seemed to function best with me on
Chrome. (Here's the group's open Frameworks add-on.) But it's well worth
fiddling with until functional. The major cities of the world rendered in
blinking computer characters is a truly freaky sight to behold. As Mark Wilson
at Co.DESIGN put it, the images share "both the look and the same
origins-of-the-Internet, hacker overtones seen in The Matrix…”

23.Google’s product pruning
continueshttp://gigaom.com/2012/08/04/googles-product-pruning-continues-unabated/ “…In the last 12 months Google has shut down
several dozen products…On Friday afternoon the axe was brought down on on three
more products…Google said it’s doing away with Google Apps for Teams, Google
Listen and Google Video for Business…It’s also planning to prune its count of
official blogs. Ibel writes that there are 150 that the company currently uses
— they’re going to pare that down to an as-yet-unnamed number…while Page may be
pruning, he’s making room for planting new, ambitious projects as well…we have
seen such products…like Google Drive and Google Compute Engine, things that are
core to the company’s mission and play to its information-finding and
processing strengths. But we’ve also seen risky entrees into areas like
augmented reality with Google Glass and living room hardware with Nexus Q. And
after an “indefinite delay” announced earlier this week, the latter looks like
it’s already on its way to being the subject of one of these product shutdown
announcements in the future…”

24.Android's Rise Helps
Google Grow its Traffic Surveillance Systemhttp://www.technologyreview.com/news/428732/androids-rise-helps-google-grow-its-traffic/ “Google…mobile maps will provide live traffic
data on 130 new U.S. cities…Google now offers traffic data in more than 50
countries…Google took a roundabout route to building the world's largest
traffic-jam surveillance network—by providing the operating system for some 400
million smartphones…using the mapping function on an Android-powered device
sends Google anonymous data on your position and current speed that it uses to
figure out traffic flows—if you're traveling along a freeway at 60 miles per
hour, but suddenly slow to a crawl, Google knows that traffic most likely just
snarled up. Google new announcement underscores the power of that mobile
crowdsourcing approach…The information sent to the company specifies only a
location and speed, not any information that can be tied to a user or
particular device, says Seyboth. The start and end points of a route are not
uploaded…”

General
Technology

25.Decoding the
Science of Sleephttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443866404577565781327694346.html “…As his Boeing 737 approached the city, Mr.
Glusica woke up from a nap in the cockpit and took over the controls. His
co-pilot warned him repeatedly that he was coming in at the wrong angle…The
plane overshot the landing and burst into flames…An investigation found that
the captain was suffering from "sleep inertia."…Some 20% of
automobile accidents come as the result of drowsy drivers…military researchers…concluded
that sleeplessness is one of the leading causes of friendly fire…But…sleep
likely hovers somewhere near flossing in most of our lives: something we are
supposed to do more—but don't…That number of sleep-deprived people is up about
25% from 1990…Americans now spend tens of billions of dollars on prescriptions,
at sleep labs, on mattresses and for medical devices in our quest for some
simple shuteye…why is sleep…becoming so problematic? Much of the problem can be
traced to the revolutionary device…the light bulb. Before this electrically
illuminated age, our ancestors slept in two distinct chunks each night. The
so-called first sleep took place not long after the sun went down and lasted
until a little after midnight. A person would then wake up for an hour or so
before heading back to the so-called second sleep…It was a fact of life that was
once as common as breakfast…A 15th-century medical book…advised readers to
spend their "first sleep" on the right side and after that to lie on
their left. A cleric in England wrote that the time between the first and
second sleep was the best time for serious study. The time between the two
bouts of sleep was a natural and expected part of the night, and depending on
your needs, was spent praying, reading, contemplating your dreams…this type of
sleep is so ingrained in our nature that it will reappear if given a chance…subjects
sequestered from artificial lights have tended to ease into this rhythm…cultures
without artificial light still sleep this way…sunset no longer meant the end of
your social life, but the beginning of it…Factories soon began running all
night long. By the 1920s, the idea of a first and second sleep had entirely
disappeared from our daily rhythms…Researchers are increasingly finding that
lack of sleep is terrible for our health. Sleeplessness has been linked to
increased rates of heart disease, obesity, stroke and even certain cancers…sleep
is the time when our bodies naturally repair themselves on a cellular level…Many
of us try to mitigate our lack of sleep with coffee and sleeping pills, but it
just doesn't work. Caffeine may work in the short-term, but…the body begins to
build up a tolerance to it…patients taking popular prescription sleeping pills
fell asleep just 13 minutes faster than those given a sugar pill. They slept
for a grand total of 11 minutes longer. People seem to overestimate the
effectiveness of sleeping pills…because of the placebo effect, and…because some
of these pills cause short-term memory loss that leaves people believing they
got better sleep than they actually did…In a new branch of sleep medicine,
scientists have identified how to get a good night's sleep naturally. Most of
the suggestions come down to changing your behavior…studies have shown that
people should avoid the bluish light from computer screens, TVs and
smartphones…for at least an hour before bed. And, by doing yoga or other
relaxation techniques…subjects in studies have…improved both their sleep
quality and quantity…New consumer devices, like headbands that measure brain
waves during the night and pedometer-like devices that measure movement, can
give the home user data rivaling what they might get in a sleep lab. Such data
can allow people to pinpoint the real effects of each day's choices on their
night's sleep…”

26.Bending light
stronger than ever before by accelerating electronshttp://arstechnica.com/science/2012/08/bending-light-stronger-than-ever-before-by-accelerating-electrons/ “When it comes to light, certain types of
fabricated materials behave in a radically different manner from ordinary
materials like water and glass: they have negative refractive indices, so that
light will travel in the opposite direction expected in normal materials…A new
experiment has achieved extraordinarily large negative refractive indices for
radio frequency light…a special material which, at very cold temperatures, bent
light much more strongly than has been accomplished before…If you place a
drinking straw into a glass of water, the straw will appear bent, with the part
in the water appearing to extend at a steeper angle than the part in air.
However, the straw will not "bend" in the opposite direction from its
insertion in ordinary materials: if you imagine a vertical line at the point
where the straw enters the water, the refracted image will always be on the
opposite side of the line from the piece of the straw in air. In negative
refraction, however, the straw would appear on the same side of the imaginary
vertical line. The researchers achieved high negative refraction through a
specially designed semiconductor device…The device is an example of a
metamaterial, since this behavior can't occur naturally. Ordinary glass has an
index of refraction approximately equal to 1.5 for visible light; previous
experiments with negative refraction created materials with indices as large as
-5. By contrast, the current study obtained an index of refraction of about
-700, a dramatically larger effect…Using metamaterials to focus radio waves
represents a significant advance in the control of light for microscopic
devices.” [look at the photo in the
article; it may look unimpressive, but it’s actually quite impressive and cool
that they can change the appearance of the straw to appear radically different
than you’d expect – ed.]

27.Valve's Gabe
Newell predicts Windows 8 will be a 'catastrophe' http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/07/26/valves_gabe_newell_predicts_windows_8_will_be_a_catastrophe.html “The co-founder of hit game maker Valve
believes that Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 operating system will spell
disaster PC makers, some of which he believes will exit the market
altogether…Gabe Newell said his company is interested in bringing its Steam
digital storefront to Linux as a way of hedging its bets against a potential
failure of Windows 8…"I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in
the PC space," Newell said. "I think we'll lose some of the top-tier
PC OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a
bunch of people…When Windows 8 launches on October 26, it will signal a major
change in strategy for Microsoft, which will be building its own touchscreen
tablets, called "Surface,"…”

28.Microsoft
said to block ability to boot straight to desktop in Windows 8http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-said-to-block-ability-to-boot-straight-to-desktop-in-windows-8-7000002219/ “If you were…counting on being able to
circumvent the new tiled Windows 8 start menu, you may be disappointed…Those
with access to the final builds are discovering the final tweaks Microsoft made
to the product…One of those tweaks is the decision to block users from setting
up their Windows 8 machines to boot straight to the Desktop, circumventing the
tiled Start screen, formerly known as the Metro screen…users cannot boot
straight to the Desktop in Windows 8. With Windows 8 test builds, users could
create shortcut that switches to the Windows 8 Desktop…While many like the tiled
Metro start screen and are looking forward to using it on touch tablets and
PCs, many others aren't keen on it -- especially business users who are
convinced that Metro will be a nuisance, especially on non-touch-enabled
hardware…”

29.TSMC, Like
Intel, Invests in ASML for 450 mm wafers and EUVhttp://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/TSMC-Like-Intel-Invests-in-ASML-for-Smaller-EnergyEfficient-Chips-368753/ “Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is
following Intel in investing in chip-equipment maker ASML, a move that is aimed
at accelerating the development of faster, smaller and more energy-efficient
chips that leverage such technologies as 450-millimeter tools and extreme
ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. TSMC…invested about $1.4 billion…to help fund
ASML’s R&D programs as it looks to adopt next-generation chip-making
technologies while slowing the escalating manufacturing costs…ASML’s research
and development programs will help secure and accelerate EUV development
activities, in parallel with the necessary focus on improved performance of
existing optical lithography tools and speed up the deployment of new
technologies for 450-millimeter wafers…The research in developing 450mm waters
will enable TSMC, Intel and others to manufacture more chips more quickly.
Longer-term, the vendors will see the benefits from the development of EUV
lithography, an immature technology that holds promise as chips continue to
shrink in size…”

30.AMD's New
FirePro Processors Include CPUs and GPUshttp://www.pcworld.com/article/260500/amds_new_firepro_processors_include_cpus_and_gpus.html “Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday launched
new FirePro processors that include CPUs and graphics processors, a change from
previous FirePro chips that only had graphics processors. The new FirePro A300
series processors combines CPUs and GPUs, much like AMD's existing A-, C- and
E-series processors that go into consumer laptops and desktops. While the
consumer chips have Radeon graphics cores, the new processors have FirePro
graphics cores and provide the graphics capability typically provided by a
discrete graphics card. The new processors are targeted at media and
engineering professionals, AMD said in a statement. It is designed for use in
multimedia workstations that are typically used to make special effects for
high-definition movies, or for engineering applications such as CAD/CAM. The
AMD FirePro A300 has four CPUs operating at a speed of up to 4GHz, 384 graphics
cores operating at a speed of up to 760MHz, and draws 65 watts of power. The
FirePro A320 has four 4.2GHz CPUs, 384 800MHz graphics cores, and draws 100
watts…”

Leisure &
Entertainment

31.Amazon decides it
actually does need licenses for musichttp://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/amazon-decides-it-actually-does-need-licenses/ “It has been over a year since Amazon.com
introduced its Cloud Player—a personal music storage and playback service
connected to a user's Amazon account. Only today, though, did Amazon announce
that it entered into licensing agreements with "Sony Music Entertainment,
EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and more than 150
independent distributors, aggregators, and music publishers,"…It's…a change
in the company's attitude toward licensing, which launched its CloudPlayer
service in March 2011, boldly proclaiming, "Cloud Player is an application
that lets customers manage and play their own music. It's like any number of
existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud
Player available."…Amazon's new scan-and-match service copies customer's
iTunes and Windows Media Player music libraries and matches songs to those in
Amazon's own library of 20 million songs, populating your cloud player so you
can listen anywhere. "All matched songs–even music purchased from iTunes
or ripped from CDs–are instantly made available in Cloud Player and are
upgraded for free to high-quality 256 Kbps audio,"…Amazon announced that
it will be separating Cloud Drive from its Cloud Player service, reserving
Drive for file storage and Player for music storage. While you can upload any
file to Drive, the two services will have separate subscriptions…”

32.Zynga and the making of
its next hit, ChefVillehttp://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/06/inside-zynga-and-the-making-its-next-hit-chefville/ “…I spent some time last week with the Zynga
team working on the game ChefVille, which will be launching its baby to the
world this week…I was able to sit down with some of the key team members on the
project. They’re a mix of folks with vast experience in gaming, going back to
the glory days of Activision. What does it take to launch a successful social
game on the Web? I made it my personal goal to find this out and boy did I
learn quite a bit…What’s ChefVille you ask? It’s a game that lets you open your
own restaurant, grow and buy your ingredients, impress and compete with your
friends and meet new people…”

33.Amazon launches social
game development studioshttp://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57487831-93/amazon-launches-social-game-development-studios/ “Amazon has launched a social game
development effort called Amazon Game Studios, as well as a game for Facebook
called Living Classics. Amazon Game Studios is exactly what it sounds like: a
new team at Amazon that's focused on creating innovative, fun…games…The post
revealed little else about the game studios other than it is currently
hiring…The studios' first major title -- Living Classics -- is what Amazon
calls a "moving object game." The game features a family of foxes
interacting with animated illustrations from books such as "Alice in
Wonderland," "The Wizard of Oz," and "King Arthur…”

34.MakeGamesWithUs Wants To
Turn High School Kids Into iPhone Game Developershttp://techcrunch.com/2012/08/06/y-combinator-makegameswithus/ “MakeGamesWithUs is a new iOS game publishing
company with a twist: its focus is on helping high school and college students
to build games. MakeGamesWithUs us will take the kids’ creations, provide
professional graphics and art and publish them in the App Store. The kids will
own the code, and the company will own the graphics and take a cut of the
sales. The company already has a few games built by students available,
including Elemental Fury…one thing that’s been missing from the code literacy
movement up til now is help in making the jump from knowing some code to
actually building something with your knowledge. “There’s a huge number of kids
out there with the potential to make games, but they get held up in the
process,” Desai explains. MakeGamesWithUs is trying to bridge that gap by
offering tutorials, tools and a forum for developers. The game builders are
assumed to already have some object-oriented programming experience,
specifically in Java. Desai says the team chose Java because it’s what the AP
Computer Science class uses, and it’s common in introductory computer science
classes at universities as well. The tutorials teach programmers to use
Objective-C, the programming language for building native OSX and iOS games,
for building games. A Mac is required. The lessons begin with downloading and
installing Apple’s development environment Xcode and the game development
framework Kobold2D. Developers are shown how to build Conway’s Game of Life
clone and can work their way up to building an Angry Birds clone. There are
other tips and tutorials as well, including an overview of doing version
control with Git…”

35.Sight: An 8-Minute
Augmented Reality Journey That Makes Google Glass Look Tamehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/07/29/sight-an-8-minute-augmented-reality-journey-that-makes-google-glass-look-tame/ “Sight, a short, science fiction film by
Israeli student filmmakers Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo is a brilliant take on
the emerging world of augmented reality (AR)—the technology behind Google‘s
goofy glasses. The film, a graduation project in the Screen-Based Arts Department
of Bezaleal academy of arts, in Jerusalem, details a fictional user interface
capable of not just augmenting, but controlling, reality—through retinal
implants…What May-raz and Lazo have done is to take consumer AR to its logical,
and terrifying, conclusion based on what is happening in the present moment…The
film depicts a day in the life of an engineer for a fictional company called
Sight Systems, at some point in the near future. One of the amusing things is
that his apartment is almost entirely bare because the contact lens-like
implants in his eyes project a data environment on the bare walls…”

Economy and
Technology

36.Wall Street company trading
program runs amok, loses $440 millionhttp://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/trading-program-ran-amok-with-no-off-switch/ “When computerized stock trading runs amok,
as it did this week on Wall Street, the firm responsible typically can jump in
and hit a kill switch. But as a torrent of faulty trades spewed Wednesday
morning from a Knight Capital Group trading program, no one at the firm managed
to stop it for more than a half-hour…Knight employees and New York Stock
Exchange officials noticed the blizzard of erratic orders…and sent alarmed
messages to Knight managers…On Friday, Knight, which in the last decade grew
into a leading broker for American stocks, climbed off the mat, securing
emergency financing…two days after it disclosed a possibly fatal $440 million loss
from the software problem…Knight’s short-term financing was meant to keep it
alive until Monday…Knight is in discussions about selling is its futures
brokerage unit, largely made up of operations the firm purchased only in May..Knight’s
failure to respond sooner was particularly mystifying to other traders because
on Wednesday the firm had introduced new trading software. Industry experts
said that this would normally be cause for programmers and other employees to
be on high alert…it would have made sense if the firm’s employees had not
caught the problems for the first minute or so, given the speed at which
Knight’s program was firing off orders. After that, though, the problems were
visible for all to see…”

37.Facebook: Work in
progresshttp://www.economist.com/node/21559947?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/workinprogress “It is still gaining members—there were 955m
by the end of June—but Facebook has been losing friends ever since it became a
public company on May 18th…not since that first day has the share price closed
above its bloated debut mark of $38…On August 1st Facebook’s shares closed at
$20.88…New shareholders are not the only ones feeling fed up. On July 30th
Limited Run, a New York platform for the online shops of record labels, artists
and designers, said it would delete its Facebook page. It estimated that 80% of
clicks came from “bots”—computers rather than people, but triggering payments
to Facebook all the same…there are reasons to be sceptical about the speed at
which Facebook’s revenues and profits can grow. In America and much of Europe
just about anyone who might want to join already has; and the ratio of daily to
monthly users ticked down…a sign to some of “Facebook fatigue”. So Facebook
must make money from the members it has rather than simply by adding new ones.
And it must find a way to do so on mobile devices, from which most Facebookers
now check the site…There is little space for ads on a smartphone; and ads must
not just avoid irritating users, but make them click…Advertising through
friends’ recommendations on social networks is still new. So advertisers will
need to learn what sponsored stories ought to look like, and then be convinced
to spend money on them. They will also need to keep refreshing stories, which
in turn will mean more expense…Gartner, another research firm, said this week
that failing to communicate with customers on social networks could be as
damaging to companies as not answering phone calls or e-mails. Mr Weinstein
notes that Facebook “is still valued like a very successful business”: worth
$50 billion…”

38.Facebook's Stock Crash Has
Created A Bunch Of New Problems For The Companyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-lockup-release-2012-8 “Facebook's stock crash has done more than
blindside investors who figured that no price was too high for the IPO. The
crash has also created a bunch of new problems for the company: Lock-up
releases will likely lead to hundreds of millions of new shares being dumped on
the market over the next six months ... and Facebook can no longer do a simple
"follow-on offering" to manage this process…Facebook faces a massive
~$3 billion tax bill related to its employee stock compensation and can no
longer do what it planned to do, which was sell shares to raise this cash…Facebook
employees now have less incentive to stay at the company than they did prior to
the IPO, which may make retention more difficult and expensive…All of these
issues could put additional pressure on Facebook's share price…”

39.Silicon Valley Creating
Jobs, But Not for Everyonehttp://www.wired.com/business/2012/08/silicon-valley-creates-jobs-but-not-for-everyone/ “…innovation creates jobs…The metro region that
includes Silicon Valley led the country in job growth, posting a 3.8 percent
increase compared to the same time last year. San Francisco followed close
behind with the second-highest growth rate at 3.6 percent…But the other key
measure of the region’s economic well-being undermines the uncritical optimism
politicians tend to lavish on tech. In Silicon Valley…the unemployment rate in
June was 8.8 percent, an increase of nearly half a percent from May, and well
above the national average…shouldn’t a place as exceptional as Silicon Valley
be able to do better than…the rest of the United States? In the definitive
annual report on the state of Silicon Valley’s economy, the Silicon Valley
Index, researchers earlier this year found that jobs for highly educated workers
abound. Average incomes are on the rise…Yet the…median incomes have fallen, and
more students are receiving free or reduced-price lunches — a standard measure
of economic hardship…as some workers make notably more money, more workers are
making less…many of them are still not finding work at all…Academics have
nicknamed this phenomenon the “hollowing out” of the U.S. economy. Highly
skilled, highly educated workers do increasingly well in an increasingly
specialized economy driven by knowledge work…But when tech companies grow, they
no longer create the kind of medium-skilled, middle-class jobs they did in the
past. Facebook doesn’t need factory workers…That’s the reality, and it’s going
to be that way from here on out. You don’t need all the people you used to
need.”…the hollowing out of Silicon Valley reflects not a temporary condition
but a basic structural change. The shakeout has just started, he says…Companies
don’t seek the talent that’s closest to home — they seek the best people in the
world, wherever they may live…“We used to have an economy that had absorption
capacity. It could provide opportunities for the whole,” Hancock says. “Now we
have an economy that’s brutal, an economy that only rewards people at the high
end. The rest I don’t know…”

DHMN Technology

40.EMF Camp, the
site and Networkinghttp://blog.emfcamp.org/post/27143646219/emf-camp-the-site-and-networking “Electromagnetic Field is a three-day camping
festival for people with an inquisitive mind or an interest in making things:
hackers, geeks, scientists, engineers, artists, and crafters…Provisioning high
bandwidth connections is always fun, especially those that are only required
for a very short period of time, and most notably, out in the middle of a
field…They’re…giving us our own 1Gbps circuit between the two. Using this we’re
constructing our own multihomed network, with multiple transit and peering
connections, ensuring speedy Internet access for the entire camp…we’ll be
erecting temporary 30 metre tall masts and creating a point-to-point microwave
link to connect the camp. As you can see the masts are pretty impressive!..Like
all large hacking events in Europe (HAR2009/CCC) we’ll be using portaloos, or
datenklos, to house network switches and power distribution around the site. If
you want super-fast wired access please make sure you bring a 40 to 50m Cat5
cable with you to connect your tent…” [you
gotta check out the picture of the datenklos, and DHMN *has* to buy a datenklos
just to kit it up like this – ed.]

41.Oculus Rift
head-mounted display finds funding from developershttp://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/oculus-rift-head-mounted-display-finds-funding-from-developers/ “The idea of a mass-market virtual reality
headset that totally immerses players in a game world died out pretty quickly
in the '90s…a hardware designer named Palmer Luckey thinks that technology has
finally caught up with the dream, and seems to have done a good job convincing
a lot of game designers that he's right…the Oculus Rift, launched on
Kickstarter today…The device quickly surpassed it's $300,000 funding
goal…primarily by selling $300 development kits to thousands of backers. Those
developers include id Software's John Carmack, (who'll be bringing Doom 3 BFG
as the first game to support the headset), Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski, Unity
CEO Dave Helgason and Valve president and owner Gabe Newell, who offered up
supportive quotes on Rift's potential for truly immersive virtual reality. What
makes Oculus Rift different from the failed consumer head-mounted displays of
the past (and present)? The creators tout a 110-degree diagonal field of vision
that eliminates the "tunnel vision" effect of some displays with
smaller screens, and an "ultra low latency" head tracking system that
prevents the nausea that can come when the image lags slightly behind your craning
neck. The Oculus Rift SDK will support games created in both the Unreal and
Unity engines…”

42.Android 4.0
ported to Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux computerhttp://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/08/android-4-0-ported-to-raspberry-pis-35-linux-computer/ “The Raspberry Pi…$35 Linux computer will
soon be able to run Android 4.0. Google’s mobile operating system is being
ported to the device…Because the Raspberry Pi computer uses an ARM11 CPU
instead of a chip based on the more ubiquitous ARMv7 architecture, software
support is somewhat limited. Recent versions of the popular Ubuntu Linux
distribution, for example, aren’t compatible. The Raspberry Pi foundation
provides a special version of Fedora that is tailored to run on the device.
There is also a specially optimized Debian port called Raspbian that is under
development. Android 4.0 could be a compelling option for some Raspberry Pi
enthusiasts. According to the Raspberry Pi foundation, the Android port has
support for hardware-accelerated graphics and video playback…”

Open Source
Hardware

43.Open source powder 3D
printer for homehttp://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Pulver-3D-Drucker-fuer-daheim-1660668.html “With the Pwdr Model 0.1 , there is another
3D printer that offers itself for the production on your desk. Alex has the
budding open-source device at the University of Twente developed (Netherlands)
and published last week on Thingiverse. Previously set for 3D printer at home…on
the fused Depositing modeling (FDM) and press a heated plastic welding wire
through a die…Pwdr DIY is the first professional who works with another method.
The production technology developed at MIT has been used only in professional
3D printer from Z Corp., such as. Here, the printer fills the installation
space in the device layer by layer with a powder bonded and selectively the
parts that belong to the object later, with a binder…Currently there is only
one copy of the Pwdr Model 0.1, the machine by Alex Budding. He has designed at
the University of Twente in the context of his thesis in mechanical engineering
and construction. In his focus on "Engineering Design" is about the
exploration of new development methods. Rapid prototyping changed since many of
the design process, he had decided to construct a 3D printer itself and aware
of the vacancy to be filled powder pressure. That all construction plans and
program components of open source should be available for budding is this:
"I hope that with the release of Thingiverse other people will be inspired
to recreate a Pwdr machine and further advance the development." Budding
Alex has been processed with his printer two materials: The ZP131 powder sold
commercially, the Z Corp. uses in its printers and consisting mainly of gypsum
, and the ceramic compound is aluminum oxide. Since the binder is made ​​from a conventional Pwdr HP printer cartridge,
the first prints are actually incurred with black printer ink. After the fine-tuning
the ink has been replaced by a mixture of water and 20 percent alcohol. The
alcohol ensures that the print nozzles do not clog the cartridge. The object of
alumina, a ceramic membrane has, (sintered) Budding after printing in a furnace
fired. Unfortunately, the material with a price of 300 € / kg too expensive for
home use. With the Pwdr will be processed but also cheaper materials:
candidates are commercially available gypsum, starch, sugar and other ceramic
powders…” http://pwdr.github.com/ [Google translated in Chrome –ed.]

44.Businesses With Impact:
Fenix Internationalhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-seaver/businesses-with-impact-fe_b_1684927.html “I want to talk about Fenix International,
the maker of the Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit. I have…seen firsthand the dire need
for a reliable power source by millions of people in third-world countries. At
the same time, I have often been surprised to notice how many people live in
poverty but still seem to have personal cell phones. They have cell phone
reception, but ironically don't always have a way to charge these cell phones
at their homes…Cell phones are not a luxury item to these people; many depend
on mobile phones to tap into the global economy…there are more than 600 million
"off the grid" mobile subscribers today: people who have cell phones
but no consistent electricity source…to charge their phones, it's a common
practice for a rural third-world cell phone user to walk more than 20 miles to
the closest city…It's an inefficient system that relies on fossil fuel power
and massive human effort to do what a solar panel could do in a few hours…the
Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit…a personal renewable energy system that uses solar
panels to generate power…it's a high-quality, well-designed product --
delivered by ex-Apple engineers hailing degrees from MIT, Stanford, Brown and
other great schools…The ReadySet Solar Kit isn't just about making it easier
for individuals to charge their phones. It actually gives regional
entrepreneurs the ability to start their own small businesses using the
ReadySet Kit, where they can in turn charge phones for their entire
communities…Fenix believes that "mobile energy" is the next exciting
frontier that will power laptops, tablets and even water purifiers and vaccine
refrigerators off-grid…Over the next five years, Fenix would like to sell at
least a million units, expand into other areas of the world, and see
"applications" for their ReadyStart kit be produced. They
intentionally designed the kit so it that its power can be imparted to devices
with a USB cable or a 12-volt adaptor, which means that third parties can
easily design compatible applications. It's "open-source" hardware,
which I personally really appreciate…They are also in the middle of a so far
very successful Kickstarter campaign, which I encourage you to check out,
because you can actually buy a ReadySet Kit for yourself by donating to this
very worthy cause. It's not just for citizens of developing countries; you can
actually use it anywhere in the world as a reliable alternative and clean power
source. It's also not a bad idea for your emergency kit or boat/RV…”

45.Scientists measure
pollutants in Kiwi homeshttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10823604 “…A device invented by the National Institute
of Water & Atmospheric Research (Niwa) to measure air quality, dubbed
Pacman, is being used to test the air quality inside houses. Pacman stands for
Particles, Activity and Context Monitoring Autonomous Node and takes the form
of a small box filled with air-quality measuring instruments…Poor air quality
affects the cardiovascular system and can cause respiratory diseases…The Pacman
devices, which will be installed in up to 20 volunteer's homes, will monitor
airborne particles, carbon dioxide levels, temperature and movement that can
influence indoor air quality…The highest measured concentrations so far had
come from the poor use of wood-burning stoves and solid wood-burners. Other
sources of indoor pollution included incense, pesticides, pets and evaporation
from solvents - pine scented cleaning products can react with sunlight and
produce dangerous airborne particles…Niwa said amateur air quality scientists
could build their own Pacman, designed with open-source hardware and software
and files that could be downloaded from here.”

46.Babelfish: Adafruit's
Arduino-based RFID flash-cards for learning language with open source hardwarehttp://boingboing.net/2012/08/03/babelfish-adafruits-arduino.html “Learn to make a speaking, card-reading toy!
The Babel Fish helps you learn to say words and phrases on RFID flash cards by
reading the card and playing an associated sound file loaded on an SD card
inside. This project is very straightforward and could make a great jumping-off
point for your own awesome RFID and Wave Shield project…”

47.New Book Will Offer
Birds-Eye View of Shenandoah Riverhttp://www.clarkedailynews.com/new-book-will-offer-birds-eye-view-of-shenandoah-river/34129 “…Beverly Pearce of Winchester…was
contemplating a photographic book about the Shenandoah River. Pearce…said that
she was researching inexpensive ways of making aerial photographs when she came
across work being done by the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science
(PLOTS). “I was impressed with their ingenuity, their energy, and their
openness—including their willingness to share knowledge, resources, and
results,” Pearce said. “Denizen Media’s policy is also one of open-sourcing our
photographs to anyone who wants to use them for non-commercial purposes, so
there was a certain alignment of purpose.”…A grant from the Marion Park Lewis Foundation
funded a mentorship for me to learn balloon mapping with Adam Griffith, one of
the original developers of the technology,” Pearce explained. “PLOTS and
Denizen Media coordinated a workshop over the weekend of July 21-22 to share
the technology with others in the area…which enabled us to spend time both on
the river practicing the ballooning—and inside working on laptops to ‘stitch’
the images together using software developed by PLOTS.”…Pearce and the others
who attended the weekend workshop used helium-filled balloons to launch cameras
to an altitude of 500 to 1,000 feet. The digital photographs are then
“stitched” together using image mapping software and can be used to show river
features such as rapids, caves, ledges, and streamside riparian corridor.
Cameras can be modified for infrared technology, which helps with mapping algae
coverage and vegetation coverage. The balloon mapping technology was developed
by ballooners who monitored the Gulf Oil Spill who later came together to pool
resources and experience, and formed PLOTS, Public Laboratory for Open
Technology and Science, a not-for-profit organization…The core PLOTS program is
focused on “civic science” in which open source hardware and software tools and
methods are used to generate knowledge and share data about community
environmental health. PLOTS seeks to increase the ability of underserved
communities to identify, redress, remediate, and create awareness and
accountability around environmental concerns by providing online and offline training,
education and support, and by focusing on locally-relevant outcomes that
emphasize human capacity and understanding…”

Open Source

48.Valve's optimizations
make Linux port of L4D2 outperform Windows versionhttp://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/valves-optimizations-make-linux-port-of-l4d2-outperform-windows-version/ “…Valve revealed that its Linux port of the
popular title Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) now outperforms the Windows version of the
game on a high-end test rig. The OpenGL-based Linux port of L4D2 runs at 315
FPS, the Direct3D-based Windows version runs at 270.6 FPS, and the OpenGL-based
Windows version runs at 303 FPS. "That the Linux version runs faster than
the Windows version seems a little counter-intuitive, given the greater amount
of time we have spent on the Windows version. However, it does speak to the
underlying efficiency of the kernel and OpenGL,"…Valve announced last
month that it was working to bring the Steam game distribution service to
Linux, as well as porting its Source game engine and L4D2…The company has
worked to boost the rendering frame rate on Linux so that it could offer a
competitive gaming experience to users of the platform. The effort proved more
successful than Valve anticipated. The company…is investigating the difference
in performance between OpenGL and Direct3D with the aim of getting the
Direct3D-based Windows version up to speed with its OpenGL counterpart…”

49.Nokia reportedly planning
to sell Qt as more developers are laid offhttp://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/08/nokia-reportedly-planning-to-sell-qt-as-more-developers-are-laid-off/ “Nokia is shutting down its Qt offices in
Australia, laying off the team that was responsible for developing key parts of
the open source development toolkit, including the QML user interface layout
system.. information…from an unnamed source suggests that Nokia is actively
looking to sell its Qt assets, effectively ending the company’s ownership of
the toolkit. Qt provides a sophisticated C++ framework for cross-platform
mobile and desktop application development. It was originally created by
Norwegian software company Trolltech, which was acquired by Nokia in 2008.
Nokia transitioned Qt to an open governance model that has made the project
more inclusive and open to independent contributors…Qt 5.0 represents a major
overhaul of the toolkit. It will make JavaScript a first class citizen and
establish QML as the standard mechanism for building Qt user interfaces…the
transition to an open governance model will insulate Qt from collapsing in the
event that Nokia withdraws its support. There are a number of other companies
that are actively involved in Qt development…There are also a multitude of
major Qt adopters, ranging from Dreamworks to Adobe, that have an interest in
ensuring that the toolkit is properly maintained…Qt also has a large following
in the open source software ecosystem…The KDE community uses Qt to build a
popular desktop environment for Linux and a cross-platform suite of desktop
software. The KDE project relies heavily on the capabilities of Qt, so the fate
of the toolkit has obvious implications for KDE as a project…”

Civilian
Aerospace

50.Boeing,
SpaceX and Sierra Nevada to win $1.1 billion NASA backing for spaceshipshttp://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/03/13103192-nasa-announces-11-billion-in-support-for-a-trio-of-spaceships “NASA has committed $1.1 billion over the
next 21 months to support spaceship development efforts by the Boeing Co.,
SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp., with the aim of having American astronauts
flying once more on American spacecraft within five years…The space agency is
setting aside $460 million for Boeing, $440 million for SpaceX and $212.5
million for Sierra Nevada. The next phase of NASA's commercial spaceflight
effort — known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability, or CCiCap — calls for
these three companies to take their design and testing program through a series
of milestones by May 2014. Optional milestones could lead to crewed
demonstration flights in later years. NASA wants to have at least one
commercial space taxi carrying astronauts to and from the International Space
Station by 2017. The three companies say they can meet or beat that schedule,
provided that they continue to receive NASA support…Boeing is working on a
capsule called the CST-100, SpaceX is
upgrading its Dragon capsule to be capable of flying astronauts safely, and
Sierra Nevada is testing its Dream Chaser space plane…SpaceX projects being
able to launch a crewed demonstration flight in 2015, and Boeing anticipates
achieving that feat by late 2016…Musk told me that the 2015 demonstration
flight would go into orbit, but not to the space station. He estimated that the
first space station flight could take place a year later…”

51.Google-Backed
Asteroid Mining Venture Adds Billionaire Investorshttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-06/google-backed-asteroid-mining-venture-adds-billionaire-investors “Planetary Resources Inc., an asteroid-mining
venture backed by Google Inc. executives, said it added more billionaire
investors and is nearing a funding agreement with a “top-10” mining company…The
venture said in April it has the backing of Ross Perot Jr., Google’s Chief
Executive Officer Larry Page, Chairman Eric Schmidt and former Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. Co-Chairman John C. Whitehead. The Seattle-based company aims to be
the first to harness potentially trillions of dollars of minerals including
platinum group metals by using robotic technology to mine asteroids…While
Planetary Resources has “enough funding for several years of operations”
including its initial prospecting missions, it would consider an initial public
offering for future financing needs…Planetary Resources intends to launch a
telescopic space surveyor into Earth’s low orbit in less than two years to
identify potential metal- and water-rich asteroids and begin prospecting within
four years…”

Supercomputing
& GPUs

52.Eurotech Adds Kepler GPU
Option to Supercomputer Linehttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-06-20/eurotech_adds_kepler_gpu_option_to_supercomputer_line.html “…Eurotech…announced an agreement with NVIDIA
to expand the Eurotech Aurora supercomputer product line with new
energy-efficient, high-performance GPU-accelerated systems…It will include
joint engineering efforts to develop the industry’s highest density Eurotech
supercomputer cluster…featuring 256 NVIDIA Tesla K20 GPUs in an X-rack
configuration. The new systems are
expected to deliver more than 500 teraflops of performance per rack and above
3.6 GFlops per watt…Using current-generation NVIDIA Fermi GPUs, the current
Aurora supercomputer delivers energy-efficient performance in the range of 2.5
GFlops per watt…By leveraging NVIDIA Kepler GPUs, the Aurora systems have the
horsepower necessary to break through the desirable 0.5 petaflops per rack
barrier…”

53.Researchers aim to
broaden researcher access to protein simulationhttp://phys.org/news/2012-08-aim-broaden-access-protein-simulation.html “Using just an upgraded desktop computer
equipped with a relatively inexpensive graphics processing card, a team of
computer scientists and biochemists at the University of California, San Diego,
has developed advanced GPU accelerated software and demonstrated for the first
time that this approach can sample biological events that occur on the millisecond
timescale. These results have the potential to bring millisecond scale
sampling, now available only on a multi-million dollar supercomputer, to all
researchers, and could significantly impact the study of protein dynamics with
key implications for improved drug and biocatalyst development. With some
innovative coding, a GPU (graphics processing unit) that retails for about
$500, and the widely used software package of molecular simulations called
Amber (Assisted Model Building with Energy Refinement), the researchers were
able to run a simulation showing the same five long-lived structural states of
a specific protein as observed in a simulation conducted by…a purpose-built
molecular dynamics (MD) supercomputer…This work shows that using conventional,
off-the-shelf GPU hardware combined with an enhanced sampling algorithm, events
taking place on the millisecond time scale can be effectively sampled with
dynamics simulations orders of magnitude shorter (2000X) than those timescales…”